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| Dragging feet by Azad on Qazi erodes his credibility | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Sep 5
By rejecting the resignation of Qazi Mohammad Afsal from his Council of Ministers and giving him a clean chit, absolving him of his personal responsibility in the bungling and irregularities in the forest department, the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has placed himself on weak wickets, viz. a viz. his main coalition partner in the government, the PDP, the party to which Qazi Afsal belongs. While the letter written by Ghulam Nabi Azad to Qazi Afsal, rejecting his resignation from the Council of Ministers is defensive and looks hardly convincing, the resignation letter addressed by Qazi to Azad is aggressive in tone and challenges the prerogative of a Chief Minister in the coalition government to allot or take back any portfolio from a minister belonging to the party other than that of the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister's contention that the Qazi was stripped of the portfolio of forest, environment and remote sensing with the latter's consent and his own suggestion, after he had alleged mess in his department and had himself agreed to leave the portfolio for sometime, till it was cleansed, appears to be least convincing, particularly when read with the letter of resignation shot up by Qazi to Azad. If the Qazi was divested of the portfolio with his consent and on his own suggestion, the Chief Minister committed a tactical mistake by not assigning the circumstances under which he had taken away the forest department from the Qazi and taking the same with himself, in the circular issued about the same, if not bringing on record the suggestion by Qazi to relieve him of the portfolio under question. Stripping Qazi of the portfolio abruptly without assigning any reason had created the impression of Qazi's personal responsibility, if not direct involvement in the mess created and bungling going on in the forest department. The natural corollary in that case was for the Chief Minister to accept the resignation of the minister.
The resignation letter of Qazi, which is drafted quite intelligently, believed to be on the behest of PDP patron, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, puts the ball in the court of the Chief Minister and revives the controversy that had erupted exactly a year back about the prerogative of the Chief Minister in a coalition government over the selection of his ministerial colleagues from the party other than the one to which the CM belongs and the choice of portfolios to be assign to them. The Qazi in his letter charges the Chief Minister of violating the spirit of agreement reached September last year, when Azad was ultimately obliged to allot the portfolios of Finance, Law and Parliamentary affairs to Tariq Hamid Qarra, despite his earlier reluctance in the matter and his preference of then his Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Baig, after Mufti Sayeed had created a sort of crises over the issue, threatening collapse of the coalition.
There are strong indications that Mr. Azad may again this time be made to eat the humble pie by restoring the forest department to Qazi, to avoid precipitation, since both the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress President Sonia Gandhi have amply made it known that they are for continuation of Congress-PDP alliance to lost even beyond the present term of the state assembly. It is generally believed that Ghulam Nabi Azad who had taken the firm stand by relieving the Qazi of forest portfolio, as a part of his drive against corruption in the administration and the public life, realizing well that the same will lead to fresh confrontation with Muftis and was prepared to face the consequences, has now dragged his feet, on the bidding of central leaders of his party. Azad had taken this step on Sunday, before leaving to New Delhi on the invitation of the Prime Minister for a dinner meeting with Mufti, to sort out mutual distrust and bickering between the two major coalition partners in J&K. But after a fresh truce reached between him and Mufti Sayeed, on the intervention of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, he is dithering from sticking to his earlier resolve to catch the bull by the horn and put the PDP on defensive, if it comes out in support of Qazi Afsal, impression about whose involvement in the irregularities and corrupt practices in the forest and allied departments was created.
Any retracting on part of Azad, who is reported to have taken action against Qazi, on receipt of confidential report from a top intelligent source about doubtful conduct of Qazi, will not only erode his credibility and sincerity about his claim of all out war on corruption, but will also be a set back to the authority of the Chief Minister, in dealing with his ministerial colleagues.
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